Front Page Headlines
Tougher stance on migrants
Integration and inclusion policies are out of the picture. Speeding up of the processing of asylum applications deemed manifestly unfounded. A memo to parliament by the Representation of the European Commission over the situation in Pournara.
- EU Leaders’ meeting on recovery – European bargaining. The initial proposal gives Cyprus €2,182 bn.
They are on tenderhooks
Dozens of businesses are waiting for the decrees to see if they will be entitled to state support. Things are clearer for hoteliers. Complaints from commerce and restaurant businesses.
- Only Muslims at Hala Sultan Tekke – New faits accomplis will affect the monument visited by thousands of tourists. The Hodja also locked with a chain and padlock the door within the temple, leading to Umm Haram’s tomb.
- Flights from Turkey are a headache
- Volkan Bozkir took over the UN General Assembly’s presidency
- Refugees are welcome, a stop to the illegals – The interior minister presented a strategy for the problem.
- Drug labs ring: The drug squad located a fourth Crystal Ice lab
- New tensions at the Turkey-Iraq border
They are muddying the waters so that they can attack AKEL
No matter how government is trying to blur the waters by avoiding to respond to AKEL’s criticism over foreign policy, citizens realised that the government has no answers and resorts to accusations against AKEL which, not only condemns Turkish provocations, but is calling on the international community to put pressure on Turkey for the solution of the Cyprus problem.
- We did not hear policies on inclusion
- Parties meeting under Akinci on speeding up the ‘presidential’ elections
- We march today against racism
Sweeping new migration rules
Clampdown on sham marriages, tightening entry for non-EU students.
- Drugs bust uncovers Cyprus’ first ever meth lab
A stop to illegal migrants
- AKEL VS FM – Minister: Your constant attacks are at personal level
- A checkmate move by Akinci who is calling for elections in August
- The investor linked with the jet scandal backed down after the uproar
- Police: This is the first time a meth lab is found in Cyprus
Main News
CG side announces crossings can resume
Cyprus Mail online, Phileleftheros online, Politis online
CBMs, Human Rights, Internal Security
OVERVIEW
The news portals reported on Friday that the government decided to open crossings to the north on Sunday apart from the one at Ledra Street with users having to present the results of a test certifying they don’t have coronavirus.
The crossings will be open for Greek and Turkish Cypriots and permanent residents who display a clean bill of health obtained within 72 hours before crossing.
Health professionals will also be carrying out random checks.
The decision was taken following a meeting on Friday morning between President Nicos Anastasiades and the scientific advisory team.
TC leader Mustafa Akinci has been informed of the decision, the news portals reported.
Crossings issues on Friday’s agenda
Alithia, Phileleftheros
CBMs, Economy, Human Rights, Internal Security
OVERVIEW
The dailies report that the advisory committee on coronavirus is to have a meeting on Friday morning President Nicos Anastasiades to assess the epidemiological outlook ahead of the introduction of phase two as regards arrivals from abroad but also what has been discussed with the TC side earlier this week at the teleconference of the Technical Committee on Health.
Phileleftheros reports that the government is concerned over the resumption of flights from Turkey to the north. According to the paper, the TC side’s refusal to provide information on the epidemiological outlook in the north and the political games among the TC leadership do no help the government get a clear picture on the situation in the occupied areas as regards the coronavirus and leaves reasonable suspicions that something is wrong.
Mustafa Akinci’s reaction to the lack of information but also to the launch of flights from Turkey lead to the conclusion that the zero cases picture painted by the occupation regime for the past two months may not correspond to reality.
The daily also reports it is not ruled out that Tatar and Ozersay might make some grand gestures due to the pressure they have been under from social groups in the occupied areas as well as the call by TC Mustafa Akinci for ‘elections’ in August,
Such a move was the announcement of completely lifting restrictions on crossings from July 1 to win over the popular sentiment at Akinci’s expense but also to put pressure on the GC side.
This is an issue that will be on the agenda of today’s meeting at the Presidential Palace, as the government is not going to make any move that will not be based on scientific data. Nicosia’s position is that the gradual easing of measures must be continued based on what the two leaders had agreed, the daily reports.
In another article, Phileleftheros, reports that the Greens’ leader, Giorgos Perdikis, will table on Friday to the House plenum a petition calling on Anastasiades to decisively request from the TC side for the opening of new crossing points, in Kokkina and Pyroi.
Perdikis argues that the residents of Tylliria and Polis Chrysochous areas are facing many difficulties because they have no access to roads to Nicosia but also because the Kokkina enclave has, since 1964, cut the road between these two areas. Opening a crossing would greatly improve accessibility and help revive local economy and society but would also facilitate TCs from Tylliria who will too be able to move in that area more easily.
The petition points out that the Kokkina crossing was among the priorities during the talks between the two leaders in 2004.
On the opening of the Pyroi crossing, he said it would immensely help Athienou residents since they would get to Nicosia much faster.
Perdikis also called on the community leaders of these areas to decisively claim the opening of these crossings.
The petition will also condemn the organised channelling of illegal migrants to the government-controlled areas from the occupation regime and will call for measures to stop the smuggling of people and products trade through the buffer zone, the paper reports.
Restriction of access for non-Muslims at Hala Sultan mosque
Phileleftheros
Human Rights
OVERVIEW
The daily reports that the TC Imam at the Hala Sultan Tekke has been forbidding during the past few weeks entrance to the mosque of non-Muslims and to people who just want to visit the religious monument but not pray.
According to the paper, a TC employee, paid by the Imam so that he doesn’t have to address the antiquities department officials, has placed a line of chairs as a barrier to prevent non-Muslims entering the mosque.
He also locked the door within the mosque leading to the tomb of Princes Umm Haram, who, according to the Koran, was Prophet Mohammad’s wet nurse. People wishing to see the tomb can now only do so from outside, from the west side of the monument, from where it is barely visible from a window in which, again, a lattice was placed. The daily reports that the Imam’s moves are arbitrary since he did not ask the antiquities department that oversees the monument.
This move has caused concerns among the antiquities department, the tour guides association but also other tourism sector officials since around 13,000 people, mainly tourists, visit the mosque complex each month during the summer.
The daily reports that a year ago, the Imam, again without asking anyone, forced people wishing to enter the complex even the yard, put on dark coloured djellabas he had placed at the entrance.
It adds that concerns have been raised over the negative impact of these preventive measures as regards visits.
The daily points out that the Imam, in the past, had tried to convince some members of bicommunal groups that Hala Sultan was a very important monument for Muslims and must be declassified as a monument by the Cypriot government and be used as a mosque. This would mean the Imam overseeing the mosque would be in charge of its management and not the Republic of Cyprus, the daily reported. It added that the government has been informed of the Imam’s latest moves by state officials.
RoC announces new migration policy
Alithia, Cyprus Mail, Haravgi, Phileleftheros, Politis
Internal Security, Human Rights, Migration & Citizenship, EU Matters
OVERVIEW
Interior Minister Nicos Nouris on Thursday announced the government’s new policies on migration and asylum aimed at curbing the large numbers of asylum seekers arriving on the island, the papers report.
The measures concern toughening entry rules for third-country students, since many file for asylum upon their arrival, clamping down on sham marriages and creating a list of 21 ‘safe countries’ whose nationals will not be considered for asylum.
The government will also significantly reduce the time it takes to examine asylum applications and rejection appeals. were announced on Thursday.
The minister said the government welcomes refugees and people truly in need, pointing out that not every person who arrives on the island has a justified reason to seek asylum.
Nouris said asylum seekers enter the Republic pretending to be college students or to enter into sham marriages, through the north or by sea. He also said that, to also tackle the large number of migrants arriving through the north, who comprise 75 per cent of asylum seekers, the government submitted four amendments including a constitutional amendment to introduce a speedier process for asylum applications.
Politis reports that Nouris said, as regards the Green Line, that the government has no intention of turning it into a hard border but that it claims the implementation of all security and control mechanisms applied at the entry points into European territory controlled by the Republic of Cyprus.
Cyprus Mail reports Nouris also called on the EU to do more as regards solidarity between member states on the issue of migrants but also call on Turkey to keep to the 2016 agreement with the EU to retain the refugees for which it is being paid billions.
KEY ACTORS
Nouris (RoC Int. Minister)
>> The government does not want to turn the Green Line into a hard border but it does want all security & control mechanisms applied at the entry points into European territory controlled by the RoC, implemented.
>> RoC wants the EU to do more on solidarity between member states on migrants & to urge Turkey to keep to the 2016 agreement to retain the refugees for which it is being paid billions.
Past choices affect today’s foreign policy
Phileleftheros, Politis
Regional/International Relations
OVERVIEW
The dailies report that Turkish Volkan Bozkir was elected as the president of the United Nations General Assembly. Bozkir will take office as the president of the 75th UN General Assembly in September for a duration of one year.
Phileleftheros reports that Bozkir, who was unopposed for the post, received 178 ballots in support. Four countries, including Cyprus, were against his candidacy.
Ankara has already interpreted this development as a recognition of Turkey’s role in promoting world peace. Meanwhile, Turkey bombs the Kurds in Iraq, sends mercenaries and ships to Libya with weapons in violation of the UN resolutions, and in Cyprus it continues to occupy part of the island, again violating the decisions of the international body, the daily reported.
Phileleftheros also reports that Bozkir’s election has brought back the question of why Cyprus is not a member of the Western European UN regional group and is member of the Asian one.
The daily argues that Cyprus is now victim to the choices it made back in the 1960’s when it opted to be part of the Asian group whereas Turkey and Israel are members of the Western European and Others Group (WEOG).
At the time, the then Cypriot leadership given the circumstances deemed that it would be best to be member of the Asian countries group.
A diplomatic source told Phileleftheros that Nicosia had put out feelers in the past about changing groups but now it is very difficult, even impossible to change to the WEOG given the current state of play and the balance of power. The existing members of a group of states do not want to upset the balances that have been created over the years. In addition, if Cyprus attempts to join the WEOG on its own, it will risk facing a Turkish veto, as unanimity is needed, the daily reports.